Republicans scrap spending bill under pressure from Trump and Musk, move closer to shutdown

Republicans scrapped House Speaker Mike Johnson’s bipartisan plan to avert a government shutdown, as President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk joined a broad swath of the House GOP on Wednesday to condemn a compromise bill full of Democratic policy priorities.

The rebuke, which built steadily through the day and culminated with a long written statement from Trump in the late afternoon, has forced Johnson back to the drawing board on a plan to prevent a Christmastime shutdown—and maintain the support of his chaotic conference to be reelected as speaker early next year.

“Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead,” Musk boasted on X, the social media site he owns, after he spent the day blasting the legislation. “The voice of the people has triumphed!”

Johnson has not outlined a backup plan, and multiple people familiar with the real-time conversations said the next step remains unclear, as leaders would need significant support from both parties—and Trump—to pass a funding extension. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (Louisiana) said Wednesday night that there was “no new agreement” and Republicans were “just looking at a number of options.”

If Congress doesn’t extend the deadline, most federal operations would shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, although the effects of a shutdown wouldn’t fully kick in until Monday.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday evening that “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country.”

The speed with which the GOP deserted Johnson’s bill on Wednesday underscored how difficult the party’s task could be next year, when Republicans will have control of the Senate and White House, but an even smaller margin in the House. Johnson told Fox News earlier in the day that he had texted Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-chair of Trump’s nongovernmental “Department of Government Efficiency,” that any measure needed Democratic support to pass, and that Ramaswamy understood the challenge he faced.

Resolving the impasse by Friday may be even harder. Trump has asked to keep certain measures Johnson supports, such as aid for farmers and natural disaster survivors, but also demanded the House ditch items that Democrats negotiated. He has also requested that Republicans extend the suspension of the debt ceiling, a limit on how much the U.S. government can borrow, which is set to expire early in his new term next year.

On Tuesday evening, Johnson had introduced legislation to extend federal funding until March 14, send $110.4 billion to natural disaster survivors and codify a host of unrelated policy changes. Late in negotiations Johnson added an additional $10 billion of aid for farmers—which opened the door to a slew of unrelated demands by Democrats to ensure the bill could pass the House and Democratic-led Senate. Those included transferring control of the District’s RFK Stadium to Washington, D.C., a pay raise for members of Congress, new regulations for health plan administrators and federal funds to rebuild Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key bridge.

Republicans grew so upset with the speaker over those provisions—even before Musk started attacking the bill—that a number of lawmakers have already said privately that they would not support him to retain his gavel in the next Congress.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) said he would not vote for Johnson to remain speaker. Two other GOP members, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, said the question of support was likely moot: Based on defections that had yet to become public, Johnson would probably be forced out of the running before lawmakers would have to make up their minds on Jan. 3, the member said. Conversations about replacing Johnson as speaker had already begun in certain corners of the GOP conference in the last several days, according to multiple Republicans who took part in the discussions.

Other lawmakers echoed those warnings.

“I am hearing from an increasing number of people, both inside and outside the Freedom Caucus, that they they’re not viewing how this was handled favorably,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-Maryland), chair of the pugnacious and ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, told The Washington Post.

Republicans from the party’s far-right and more moderate wings uniformly protested the way Johnson assembled the legislation, and Musk—now a close adviser to Trump—spent Wednesday blasting the legislation, calling it “criminal.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of that chamber’s GOP leadership team, also weighed in, calling the bill a “cramnibus” on social media, potentially indicating trouble in the Senate even if the measure passes the House.

Democrats were outraged at the collapse of their deal.

“House Republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said. “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people that results from a government shutdown, or worse. An agreement is an agreement.”

In the Senate, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (New York) was telling fellow Democrats that “we have a deal with Republicans, and we’re sticking with it,” a person familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private talks.

Johnson had repeatedly pledged he would try to move only a narrow bill that extended existing funding to avert a government shutdown and distribute the emergency aid for survivors of natural disasters.

Earlier Wednesday, Johnson sought to portray the sprawling bill as unfortunate, but necessary, with Democrats still in control of the White House and Senate.

“By doing this, we are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come roaring back with the America First agenda. That’s where we’re going to run with gusto beginning Jan. 3 when we start the new Congress, when Republicans again are in control,” he said on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning.

Johnson told Fox he has heard Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s concerns and texted them that “any bill has to have Democrat votes” given the narrow GOP margins. Johnson said that Ramaswamy understood the speaker is in an “impossible position.”

Two-thirds of House members must vote for the bill for it to pass, because Johnson will bypass the usual process for floor votes. Several Republicans will be closely eyeing the outcome.

“The number of no’s,” one House Republican against the bill said, will indicate to the conference how much opposition Johnson could have to discuss over the break whether the speaker can remain in power.

“Over the majority of members are not happy,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Florida) said. “It didn’t have to be this way.”

Johnson won’t be able to rely on Democrats to win the speaker’s election next year. So he’ll need 218 votes from his slim—and now greatly irritated—conference. House Republicans will have a narrower majority next term, beginning the year down one member after former representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) resigned, making it nearly impossible for Johnson to lose any support and hold onto his post.

In early 2023, it took 15 rounds of voting for then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) to become speaker, when Republicans had a five-vote majority. Johnson has just a three-seat majority.

Still, some House Republicans said they’d stick with Johnson. Moderate Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) plans to vote for the funding package and acknowledged that Johnson has had a tough job passing legislation that requires Senate approval, since that body is led by Democrats until Republicans take over in the new year.

“There’s mainly Republican bills in the CR so I feel like he’s doing the best he can, but you got to make some horse trades, because that’s what Congress is,” he said. “But I think he’s doing a great job.”